There’s no question that yesterday’s ad tech trend, programmatic buying, is here to stay. Programmatic spending is expected to reach $21B worldwide in 2014, according to Magna Global. To understand how the move toward programmatic buying is impacting the advertising industry, DoubleClick recently commissioned a study on the topic with Advertising Age. Here’s what we found.

More advertisers are demanding it:

41.6% of surveyed advertisers (including marketers and agencies) indicated that programmatic is top of mind when designing a media plan. This is a marked shift from previous strategies, where it was primarily considered at the end of the media buying process.

2 years from now, marketing departments will be the primary advocates for programmatic buying; currently, the media buying arms of agencies and marketers are responsible for it.

Cross-platform reach is believed to be the primary benefit of programmatic buying for advertisers, followed by increased operational efficiency, and better relevance in messaging

Publishers are adapting for a programmatic world:

For nearly 25% of the publisher respondents in the survey, programmatic selling is top of mind when responding to RFPs

72% of publishers surveyed would sell more inventory programmatically with stronger cross-platform support

Publishers expect an 11.17% rise in CPM growth rates in the next 2 years

The growth of programmatic is contingent upon the evolution of the advertising ecosystem: